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Product Information
Colin Howson offers a solution to one of the central, unsolved problems of Western philosophy, the problem of induction. In the mid-eighteenth century David Hume argued that successful prediction tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory. No matter how many experimental tests a hypothesis passes, nothing can be legitimately inferred about its truth or probable truth.But physical theory routinely predicts the values of observable magnitudes to many small places of decimals and within very small ranges of error. The chance of this sort of predictive success without a true theory seems so remote that the possibility should be dismissed. This suggests that Hume's argument must be wrong; but there is still no consensus on where exactly this flaw lies. Howson argues that there is no flaw, and examines the implications of this disturbing conclusion for relation between science and its empirical base.Product Identifiers
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN-139780198250388
eBay Product ID (ePID)94755988
Product Key Features
Book TitleHume's Problem: Induction and the Justification of Belief
AuthorColin Howson
FormatPaperback
LanguageEnglish
TopicPopular Philosophy, Science
Publication Year2003
TypeTextbook
Number of Pages272 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height215mm
Item Width137mm
Item Weight317g
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorColin Howson
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited Kingdom
